Role of Women & Women Organizations
GS Paper: GS Paper I | Subject: Indian Society | Last updated: 2026-06-26
Prelims
(Key facts, data, schemes, laws, organizations — MCQ-ready points)
PCPNDT Act & the Sex-Ratio Debate — Revisiting Ultrasound Law (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)
- The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act was enacted 1994 (amended 2003) to curb prenatal sex determination and sex-selective abortion of female foetuses, after the child sex ratio declined with the spread of ultrasonography (female foeticide became evident from the 1980s)
- Provisions: mandatory registration of all genetic clinics/ultrasound centres/labs; strict bar on communicating the sex of the foetus; detailed record-keeping; an ultrasound machine must stay at the registered location — moving it outside a registered facility is an offence carrying ≥3 months' non-bailable imprisonment; sale of machines is tightly regulated (buyer must be pre-registered, give a written undertaking)
- Impact & unintended consequences: sex ratio at birth has gradually improved, but studies attribute several adverse effects to the law's restrictions — families with a firstborn girl had ~25% higher child mortality among firstborn girls vs boys (lower parental health investment), higher fertility (more children seeking a son), resource dilution and widening education disparities — felt most among poor, rural households who can't afford illegal services
- Persistence: sex-selection rackets continue (e.g. Karnataka, Oct 2025) using portable/covert ultrasound; son-preference even among diaspora (UK reports) — showing law alone can't drive social change
- Reform debate: portable AI-enabled / high-frequency linear-probe ultrasound could bring community-based cancer screening (esp. breast cancer) to rural areas, but is currently illegal; high-frequency probes cannot determine foetal sex, so experts urge amending the Act to distinguish diagnostic from sex-determination use (public-health angle in [health-diseases])
Mains
(Analysis, dimensions, significance, critique, policy angles — for 10/15 mark answers)
Law vs Social Change — the PCPNDT Lesson (The Hindu, 26-06-2026)
- A law can't substitute for a value shift: the PCPNDT Act built an essential regulatory framework against female foeticide, but deep-rooted son-preference persists (rackets, diaspora behaviour) — and the restriction even produced perverse outcomes (firstborn-girl families having more children, higher girl-child mortality, resource dilution). It illustrates the limits of legislative/coercive approaches without changing patriarchal preferences (need: conditional cash transfers like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, education, social messaging)
- The technology dilemma — regulation must evolve: a law written for 1994 ultrasound now blocks beneficial uses — AI-assisted, high-frequency-probe scans for early cancer detection in underserved rural areas (~70% of Indians) — even though such probes cannot sex-determine. Smart regulation should distinguish use-cases and add safeguards for AI/portable diagnostics, rather than a blanket ban that has a chilling effect on legitimate care
- Equity dimension: both the harm (poor rural women bear the brunt of restrictions) and the opportunity (frontline AI-ultrasound to reach the under-served) are about gender + class + rural health access together
- UPSC angle: declining child sex ratio & female foeticide, PCPNDT Act 1994, law as an instrument of social change, technology regulation (AI in medicine), rural healthcare access, women's empowerment beyond legislation
"A Feminist Future Cannot Rely on Past Language" (Indian Express, 04-06-2026, op-ed by Mrinal Pande)
- Core argument: The beauty/fashion industry has co-opted feminist vocabulary — selling products to the "liberated woman" while reinforcing appearance-based worth; consumerist self-image has replaced the older feminist focus on working-class women's material conditions
- Illustration: Glamour events (e.g. Cannes red carpets) proceed amid global economic distress — beauty-industry messaging masks deeper inequality
- Way forward (key line): The next real wave of liberation must be rooted in a collective idiom of self-esteem among women of all ages, classes, castes and communities — not a market-defined, appearance-based identity
- UPSC/essay angle: Distinguishes agency vs. commodification; feminism beyond consumerism; intersectionality (class/caste/community); useful for answers/essays on women's empowerment, gender and the market, body image and society